Mortal Kombat Trilogy

N64

Review
by Matt Paprocki

Midway

Fighting

Graphics: 8

Sound: 8

Gameplay: 8

Overall: 8

Being alone is rarely fun. That's what happened to Mortal Kombat
Trilogy on the N64. One of only two 2-D fighters on the console, this updated
expansion to Mortal Kombat 3 satisfies fans of the series with a fantastic array
of gameplay options to set the game up to the player's favorite style.

The roster is the
biggest (literally) update to this series, featuring characters picked from every game in
the series up to this title's release. It leads to balance issues, which was already a
problem for MK3. Toss in characters from the rest of the series and it's hard to
find a fair match up.

Then again, Mortal Kombat has never been about balance or deep strategic play.
It's about ripping heads off, impaling people, and devouring them in various grisly ways.
It sells itself on the violence, and in the case of this game, there's nothing wrong with
that. It adds to the games deep storyline and dark atmosphere, a true rarity for the
genre.

Gameplay is where things feel familiar, and the ingenious options of turning off the combo
system (based far more on memorization than skill) turns this into two different games.
Without it, this plays like the highlight of the franchise, Mortal Kombat II.
It's the best thing that could of happened to Trilogy.

The engine is still classic Kombat, and it won't change anyone's mind on the
franchise. It's tight, stiff, and unlike its closer competitor from Capcom. It's designed
in a way to show the brutal impact of every blow landed and while it's not for purists,
there's little question this is entertaining.

The d-pad on the
N64 is barely adequate for fighting games (or for much else for that matter), but Mortal
Kombat's tap-tap style of special moves doesn't require the deep precision moves of
other fighters. Everything from fatalities to standard specials come off without a
problem. The button configuration is an adjustment, but not a long one. It actually feels
natural unless you only use arcade sticks. The speed upgrade makes a difference too, and
there will be a short adjustment period with this too.

As a mixture of games, Trilogy takes stages and locales from all three entries to
support the backdrops. Some have been created to mix together (use an upper cut to send
someone flying up from a MK3 stage to a MKII battlezone). Tweaks are
minor, and the N64 shows some nice sprite-pushing power here. The graphics are not
spectacular, but are a treat for fans who can see their favorite characters mixed.

With two wildly different ways to play, Trilogy is the best of the N64 fighting
game lot. That doesn't say much given the competition (especially given how few fighting
games there are), but it does say something for how well these early Mortal Kombat
entries hold up. Fans will do better here than on the Playstation too.